Bellevue-based synthetic data startup Rendered.ai announced it has raised a $6 million seed round.
According to Rendered.ai founder and CEO Nathan Kundtz, the money will help the startup open up its platform, which is currently in a closed beta test. He added that the company plans to make its technology more generally available later this year. The company said in a release it has government, commercial and academic clients, but Kundtz declined to name any specific clients.
"Anyone who needs to understand the world around them in an automated way often turns to artificial intelligence," Kundtz said. "In order to do that effectively, synthetic data can play a significant role in improving the quality of the insights."
Kundtz said Rendered.ai has about 15 employees, of which about half are based in the Seattle area. He added that the company allows for remote work and has been recruiting nationally. He said Rendered.ai doesn't have a specific target for how many employees it aims to have in a year.
Rendered.ai was founded in 2019. The company helps clients train artificial intelligence by providing simulated training data, helping AI recognize rare situations it might not have seen before. For example, synthetic data could help self-driving cars recognize an overturned car without forcing cars to drive by accidents. Kundtz said synthetic data can be anything from video game-like graphics to more realistic solutions.
Space Capital led the round, while Tectonic Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Union Labs and Uncorrelated Ventures participated.
Kundtz was previously the CEO of Redmond-based Kymeta, a company that makes mobile antennas to help communications in difficult terrains. He left Kymeta in 2018. According to Kundtz, despite the new funding, Rendered.ai doesn't have plans to grow its office space in Bellevue at the moment, and the company looks at its offices as a collaborative environment that provides an optional alternative to working from home.
"The reality is most people are spending the majority of their time working from home, but for a variety of reasons we all sometimes need to have a different place that we can come to," Kundtz said.
